50 years on Marilyn Monroe still a star

Marilyn Monroe poses over the updraft of New York subway grating while in character for the filming of "The Seven Year Itch" in Manhattan on Sept. 9, 1954. The former Norma Jean Baker modeled and starred in 28 movies grossing $200 million. Sensual and seductive, but with an air of innocence, Monroe became one of the world's most adored sex symbols. She died alone by suicide, at age 36 in her Hollywood bungalow.

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Marilyn Monroe poses in a bathing suit in 1947 at age 21 at the start of her career.

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In this 1946 image taken by photographer Joseph Jasgur shows Norma Jean Dougherty, who eventually changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. The photo and negative sold for $21,875 in December 2011.

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Marilyn Monroe with Groucho in 1949 in the last Marx Brothers film, "Love Happy."

Marilyn Monroe is shown on set in the film, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" in 1953. Monroe is probably best remembered for her comic turns in this film, as the gold-digging Lorelei Lee who sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." Monroe passed away a half-century ago this week, a murky death that remains one of Hollywood's most tantalizing mysteries.

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Marilyn Monroe is seen in character in the 1953 movie "How to Marry a Millionaire."

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Joe DiMaggio, baseball's famed "Yankee Clipper," and screen actress Marilyn Monroe, smile cheek to cheek as they wait patiently in Judge Charles Perry's chambers for their marriage ceremony in San Francisco on Jan. 14, 1954. The wedding climaxed a romance of more than a year.

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Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe sings to an audience of G.I.'s during the first show of her recent four-day tour of Korea, Feb. 22, 1954. She is wearing her much-discussed low-cut purple cocktail dress about which she had told newsmen, "it's the only one I brought over that is suitable for the show".

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Tears well in the eyes of movie actress Marilyn Monroe as she faces reporters outside her home, October 6, 1954, for the first time since she announced that she and her husband, Joe DiMaggio, were breaking up.

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Marilyn Monroe, right, wearing a burnished gold lamé gown meets Queen Elizabeth in London in October 1956. The photograph is included in a new 2012 book, "Marilyn in Fashion," published by Running Press.

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Playwright Arthur Miller and actress Marilyn Monroe and are shown after their civil wedding ceremony in White Plains, N.Y., on June 29, 1956.

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Marilyn Monroe learns the English way to make a movie as her director and co-star, Sir Laurence Olivier gives her advice in London on Aug. 14, 1956. In "The Prince and the Showgirl", Miss Monroe plays the part of an American show girl starring in a London musical in 1911.

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FILE - Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the hilarious milestone comedy, Some Like It Hot, produced, directed and co-scripted by Billy Wilder, United Artists, in this 1959 file photo. Curtis has died at 85 according to the Clark County, Nev. coroner. (AP Photo, File)

Ronald Reagan shares a laugh with Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles in this 1959 photo.

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Director George Cukor talks with Marilyn Monroe on the set of "Something's Got To Give," in Hollywood April 30, 1962.